WELCOME!
Hello again. I hope you are all enjoying the warm sunny summer we’re having this year. We certainly are, and I wanted to let you know what we’ve been doing.
With regards to trips away, there aren’t any trade shows over the summer months, so it gives us the ideal opportunity to get away with our families. So if you’ve called in and one of us hasn’t been around, here’s where we’ve been…
WHAT WE’VE ALL BEEN UPTO
Lucy spent a week in Selsey, which is reportedly the sunniest place in the UK, and a week in Berwick-Upon-Tweed. She has also had day trips further north including her first visit to Scotland. Dan has had a couple of weeks away too. The first on scout camp in Hope, Derbyshire. The second week he spent at Chapel St Leonards on the east coast, followed by two nights in London. Phil and Sarah came back to work with a nice tan after spending a week sunning themselves in Majorca.
For me, I’ve been away on another cycling trip. After recovering from my last bike ride following the Rhine, I couldn’t wait to jump back on my bike. This time for a shorter journey though. I headed up to the Outer Hebrides, which if you’ve not already been, it is a must! It really was like heaven on earth, with quiet beaches, amazing scenery and the chance to see wildlife up close. A sudden change in the weather cut my trip to just 4 days, but I’m already looking at heading back. In the meantime, I’m off to Wales with the family for a week.
I have also been celebrating the wedding of my eldest daughter, Kate, to my new son-in-law, Bence. We had a fantastic day, with a service at Edale church followed by the reception in a beautifully decorated marquee on the village playing field. It was a great community effort with neighbours in the village helping out to make sure Kate had the day she’s dreamed of. My youngest daughter, Rose, even baked the wedding cake and provided most of the catering.
Bence is from Hungary and a lot of his family hadn’t visited the UK before. There was definitely a language barrier at times, but we did find one way to communicate, through a Hungarian drink made from apples called Palinka. Even though it wasn’t to my taste we still got through plenty of it.
As you would expect, eyewear played a big role on the day. Many of the guests come to The Spectacle Shop for their eyewear needs. I spent weeks deliberating which glasses I should wear. The weather turned out to be great and so I spent most of the day wearing my bright pink Theo sunglasses, which even the vicar loved!
STICKING WITH WEDDINGS
It’s not only Kates wedding that eyewear is playing a part in. Over the last few months, we’ve had a lot of new customers visit us. Some come to us specifically looking for something special for a particular event. It all started with a lovely lady who wanted eyewear that made her feel as special as her wedding dress. She found that feeling in a pair of Francis Klein, finished elegantly with Swarovski strass in a jewellers setting. They looked stunning. Since then, we’ve seen more people looking for a unique pair of glasses for a special event. Of course, doing what we do, we agree that special eyewear is just as important as a wedding dress, or a suit, and as important as the right shoes and handbag. Therefore, we’ve booked our first wedding Fayre for the start of September to help more people find something that they truly feel special wearing.
THEO SUMMER EXTRAVAGANZA
It has been a busy year for events so far for us. And coming up next, we have our Theo Summer Extravaganza. Usually, we hold a whole collection just for a day, but this summer we have the whole Theo collection for two very special days, Friday 19th and Saturday 20th August.
Just like last time, Monica, the UK Theo ambassador will be joining us with the entire collection. She will also be bringing with her new, never before seen show-stopping frames! We do get quite busy whenever Monica visits us, so if you’d like an appointment to guarantee avoiding missing out please let us know.
Theo was launched by Wim Sommers and Patrick Hoet in Antwerp, Belgium in the 1980’s. Disillusion with what they saw as the boring world of eyewear, they decided to shake it up. They continue to use an artistic approach, daring designs and very bright colours, and are designed for lovers of exclusivity and originality.
AN UPDATE ON EPIQUE
The last time I wrote to you I introduced a new range that we had found at the Mido eyewear show in Milan called Epique. This was a fantastic collection designed by Alessia that blew us all away when we first saw it. We were to be the first stockist of the product outside of Italy.
We hoped it would be a relatively straight forward process to get the new frames to Barnsley. How wrong we were. We are still working hard to get them here, but we’re unfortunately being held up by red tape on the Italian side of things as Alessia is trying to register as an exporter with the Italian government and get her head around the extra steps needed to send her frames abroad.
Hopefully we’ll be able to provide another update soon, but if you were holding out to see this collection, please bear with us.
AN EASY WAY TO PAY
As you may well know, we are always looking to evolve by bringing in new collections and holding events. As we do this, your eyewear collections evolve too, with many of you now owning different styles for different occasions,andr also sunglasses. To make this a little easier for you, we’ve introduced a payment plan for the option to spread the cost. All we ask is for a small deposit, and the rest can then be spread over six months. It’s interest free, and run through us, so it doesn’t cost anything extra to pay this way. Just ask us for more information the next time you’re passing by if you’re interested.
AN EVENING TO SAY THANKYOU
We have recently shared on social media how it has been a year since local artist, Jenny Beard, began work on our fantastic feature wall. Well, time flies and now we’re also a few weeks away from the one-year anniversary of moving into our new shop! If you haven’t had chance to see it yet, feel free to call in for a look around, enjoy a drink and a catch up.
To celebrate our first year of the new shop, we thought it would be nice to get you involved too. You may have heard of my friend, Bella Hardy, who is a very talented folk singer. She has recently released a new album and we have talked of her visiting us to sing for our customers. This would be an evening with prosecco, beer and of course, fantastic eyewear too. Before we can plan any further we would need an idea on numbers. So, if you would be interested, please let us know by calling 01226 296 770 or by email on [email protected]
FINALLY,
We are all very proud to tell you that our new shop has been fantastically received over the last year. We believe this to be a combination of how superb you all look in your eyewear, and our growing presence on social media. We’ve recently had an influx of customers both from the surrounding area, and customers travelling the country to find us, including the east coast and the Lake District.
Every week somebody comes through the door who has been sent our way by one of you, and your fantastic glasses, so a big thank you to you all.
We promise to strive to constantly improve the service we offer and stay totally committed to provide the best products available in the world.
I would also like to thank all of you who have continued to support us over the last couple of years. We know it hasn’t been easy for anybody, but it is all of you and your words of encouragement that drive our passion for what we do.
We would also like to say a huge thank you for your online reviews and your recommendations. These especially make a big difference to our business meaning we can keep doing what we love.
As always, please feel free to share this copy of Life in Spectacles with your friends and family.
Take care and see you all soon,
